As we were waiting eagerly at the entry gate of Ranthamboew national park I could just pray the god for a glance at the tiger in this safari 🙂 (remember last time i could get 10 seconds view after four safaris and 180 kms of inside travel at Kanha – MP !)
We were told to get ID proofs for verification, but no one was even bothered to see them ! security here is very loose and anyone can get inside without even knowing ! (if you compare this with Kanha – they are really very strict in validating ID’s)
If you wish to book gypsy then do it at least 2 months in advance else you will have to travel in cantor u can see at rightside photograph !
imagine if number of people are more how chaotic it would be ! during our safari to route 4 we were following a cantor and people in cantor were littering like anything !!! our driver was collecting the garbage which they were throwing inside jungle ! I think such stupid people should be kicked on theiir axx …
Route 1 passes on side of fort Ranthambore, which is also Pradakshina route to the Trinetri Ganesha, surprisingly local people are allowed to walk on this road to complete the pradakshina !! I think this shall be stopped immediately …
In general guides were not knowledgeable about the jungle and so our trip to route 1 was in vain (guide saw that tiger has moved to the other zone at the entry gate itself still he kept moving as timepass)
We were lucky that and the end of safari to route 1 we could get glimpse of leopard (that was also because of another gypsy where foreigners were there) on this route you can see lot of peacocks and birds though. also one of my friend got lucky view of sloth bear with his babys 🙂
Route 2 is dry and again here also the tiger already moved out of zone so we kept on hunting, we were lucky that after coming out of zone 2, on return journey to the main gate we could see tiger T24.
Route 4 has comparative green bushes and lot of water where u hv chances of tiger sighting ….
we were given the same route again and again by the computer system !!! so we got the route changed by paying 100 Rs to the forest officer !! I could see that this is there regular business, they give same route for two days and you end up paying official route change fees of 1000 Rs or unofficial fees of 100~500 Rs to the forest guards !! again kick their axx ….
this is entry point to zone 1 and zone 2, where I could see that forest officers at gate collecting 100 to 200 Rs from gypsy drivers ! openly they were getting the money, in fact our driver spend 10 minutes in bargaining about the money !! I have not seen such corruption openly done anywhere in my life !!! after asking driver he said they collect this money on the name of providing water to the travelers on fort ?
This is entry point to the route 4 & 5,
route 5 is supposed to be the best since have lot of water reserve, probability to see the tiger is the best on this route (we could not get this route since same route was given to all our groups by them ! purposefully and we refused to pay route change fees !!!) so be extra careful while you book ur safari.
Below video shows the forest officers at ranthambore discipline and results from what money they would be taking ! inside core zone (at all routes that I visited 1,2,4) there is forest choki, and outside choki u can easily spot liquor bottles !! after asking they said “kya kare .. rat bhar rukana padta hai” .. imagine if u do this in a private company ! what would happen ? but these are government employees ! they can do what they want .. spoil the forest …
Route 3 was banned to enter due to missing cub of tigress … I came to know from the guide that there were 4 cubs out of which 1 got missing since couple of weeks .. so the forest officers has banned going on that route .. some incident happened due to lot of tourist gypsy crowding to see the tigress with cubs .. where she could not make the way out .. and while doing so she missed one cub ? so heavy fine was applied to the gypsy drivers and route banned for tourists …
actually this was result of nonsense done by the forest officers in my opinion .. at Kanha no one dares to break the rules and forest officers are strict in terms of time and rules, here at ranthambore .. every thing is driven by money !!! unfortunately things given by nature are being torn of by these stupid people !! I was so upset with this visit … 🙁
Summary
– If you are doing online booking or through agent, make sure that you get region/track no. 3,4,5 at least once out of 4 safaris
– Gypsy are better than canter, hence book in advance so as to get gypsy.
– Do capture photographs of wrong things happening at Ranthambore and put loud on social media, it is must.
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